


Chaulk Roses

by lusentoj



Category: Gintama
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Coming Out, M/M, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-13
Updated: 2018-12-21
Packaged: 2019-09-17 05:56:14
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16968957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lusentoj/pseuds/lusentoj
Summary: University!AU.Gintoki walks into class and finds Hijikata with a certain magazine. Gintoki knows exactly what that expression means: Hijikata's so far in the closet the winter wind is blowing.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I'd utilize my experience as an English teacher and having been in uni for a billion years, and then it kinda didn't happen. Soundtrack: https://youtu.be/VjAxLbmy83E

Gintoki walked in on Sarutobi and Hijikata staring at the same magazine, hands gripping the pages. "Oi, oi, what's this?" drawled Gintoki, dumping his bag off next to the teacher's desk.  
  
"Sakata!" screeched Sarutobi, ignoring Gintoki's interjection of "Sakata- _sensei_ ", shooting up her hand after beginning to talk. "I saw you buying this magazine at 7-11, didn't I?! Which page do you like best?! Tell me so I can --"    
    
"Get new glasses." said Gintoki, flat-voiced. "How much d'you think teachers get paid? Between train fare, rent and pachinko the only weekly magazine I can afford is JUMP."  
  
"What about B○○koff?" asks Sougo, eyeing Hijikata's pained expression, face still on the page.  
  
"Crowded, hot, and reeking of sweaty geeks who won't just buy the damn 100-yen book and free up the aisles? After a full day of putting up with you little shits? No way. Sarutobi, back to your seat. Hijikata-kun, put that thing away."  
  
"What?!" Hijikata's head snapped up, the magazine smashing down onto his desktop. "You're not gonna confiscate it?!"  
  
Gintoki looked at him blandly. "Y'think I wanna get caught with that thing in school? Better you than me. And you're not in high school anymore, I'm not confiscating anything unless another staff member walks in."  
  
The men's magazine for men was shoved into Hijikata's schoolbag with a scowl, and so as usual, fifteen minutes in class finally started. Gintoki picked up his attendance sheet, droning out names - Catherine-san, student number xxx? Here. Kondo-kun, student number xxx? Not here. Whispers passed around the room, something about suicide, but Gintoki kept going.  
  
After attendance he began droning out the reading from the Classical Japanese textbook, occasionally highlighting points on the blackboard. Kagura walked in fifty minutes late trying to excuse herself with a baked potato in her mouth, prompting Gintoki to inform her yet again that _if you can't even speak normal Japanese then what the hell're you doing here_ , and otherwise the day was normal.  
  
Until the end of class.   
  
Everyone was packing up their bags to leave when Gintoki came up to Hijikata, picking up his textbook on a whim. It was colour-coded, notes written in the margins as if he'd actually been paying attention to everything he'd said, as usual.  
  
"Hey, Hijikata-kun. You free after class?"    
    
"Kinda, why?" Suspicious.  
  
"It's my teachoral duty to talk to you about that magazine."    
    
"What?! You said --- It's not even mine, it's Sarutobi's!"    
    
"Yeah, yeah, you're not in trouble. Just come to... ah."    
    
"What?"    
    
"It's lunchtime, right? Instead of coming to my office, let's go grab a bite to eat."  
  
"What're we eating?"    
   
"Ramen? Karaage? 7-11? Take your pick."  
  
"...Cheapskate."  
    
Gintoki stared at him, eyes dulled by years of apathy. "It's not a date, Toushiro-kun." And Hijikata flushed red, grabbing his notebook from out of Gintoki's hands and slamming it onto the desk.  
  
"Of course not! Geeze."  
  
And they walked out of the classroom together, Gintoki uncharacteristically holding the door open for him as they left.

\-----------

"Look," Gintoki says, fingers wrapped around the bright pink straw of his milkshake. "I know this might be a shock to you, being a repressed bookworm'n all, but s'not a problem these days. In Sapporo you can even get married!"  
  
Hijikata stared at him, not wanting to comprehend.  
  
"I won't tell anyone. I'm on your side." He chattered away, high on sugar. "I knew a guy who was gay once, in university. A really nice guy, he never even made fun of my perm!"  
  
"I'm not gay," says Hijikata slowly, as if Gintoki's especially stupid.  
  
"Hijikata-kun," replies Gintoki casually. "Has a girl ever liked you?"    
    
"Well yeah, but that's ---"    
    
"Have you ever liked her back?"    
    
"Of course."    
    
"But not in a... you know. _That_ kind of way, right? The way where your loins burn at the thought of her name? The way where you get wet when you brush against her hand, and it fuels your bedsheet activities for three days? Hey, y'know that Kondo kid? Like that."    
    
Hijikata's eyes shifted to the side. Gintoki took another long drag of his milkshake, sitting back in his chair.  
  
"That doesn't mean I like men, it just means... things were unfortunate."    
    
"Mmhm." says Gintoki, already formulating a plan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'know how back in the day you found out you were gay by watching like, naval recruitment ads in the movie theater or something? I think that's Hijikata. That or he found out from one fight too many.


	2. Chapter 2

Throughout the next week Gintoki stacks up as many used, dirty magazines as he can up in the small confines of his one-room apartment, accepting donations Hasegawa (the old town mayor, or was it school principal?) finds in the recycle zones for each house while wandering the streets. He browses through them idly, one-by-one, Ketsuno Anna's sweet, canned voice on the radio, and picks out the girls according to type - Long Hair Generic, Short Hair Generic, Ganguro, Chubby, Oneesan, Swimsuit - quickly selecting one of each and bundling them together with a paperclip, the glossy pages bent, crumpled and ripped to various degrees.

Mixed in are a few of the _other_  type and he sorts those too, a smaller, separate pile that's no less worn.

\-------

"Hijikata-kun," he says, and the man knows by now to stiffen up at the words. "Can you help me out again today after fifth period? I've gotta lotta handouts to staple."

Sougo and Kagura snigger off to the side, wishing him luck in double, crooning voices.

Hijikata sighs and slings his bag over his shoulder, navy-blue more suited to interviews than to school. "Sure, whatever, _Sensei_."

\-------

"So, have you enjoyed the magazine?" asks Gintoki casually, as if asking the date. Hijikata's face turns red and cloudy, and he looks down at the stack of papers to staple - far fewer than Gintoki had suggested.

"I haven't looked at it again, of course." comes the reply.

"Oh really? Hey, if you don't mind - what kind of girls do you like?"

And he opens his bag, unearths the collection of magazine pages from one of his plastic peachies, tossing it onto the part of the desk where Hijikata is working.

"Wh--" starts Hijikata, then calms down once he sees what it is. "Sensei, this is sexual harassment."

"In your dreams," says Gintoki, picking his nose. "Now c'mon, I spent a lot of effort picking those girls out for you - you don't like any of 'em? Any make your blood race, eh?"

Hijikata flips through the pages quickly, Gintoki's eyes boring through him.

"It's just shitty, photoshopped paper, not the same as a real girl. And used! What the hell, are these _your_ _s?!"_

"Nah, I got 'em from... no, they're not mine. I prefer warm, living bodies 'n actual love in my hands, not 400-yen papercuts."

Hijikata looks away from the pages and up at him, as if thinking of how to word himself to these oddly-respectable words.

"Oh but I've got something else for you to try," he adds, pulling out the male version. Hijikata's face immediately turns beet red and he rips the magazine from Gintoki's hands, then tears it in half.

"What the hell, I spent time on that!" whines Gintoki.

"Spend time actually teaching your classes instead, y'goddamn ba... de... e-erotomania!"

Gintoki raises an eye at him. "I'm ero?"

"Shuddap!"

And Hijikata leaves, ears red. After the door slams shut Gintoki notices that the ripped pages are gone too. After a few more moments Otae pops her head in the door, her room just across the hall, sickly-sweet smile on her face: " _Gintoki, is something wrong?_ "

"Just trying to help a student with their personal problems." he replies, hoping that lunchbox in her hands isn't one meant for others.

"So his ero girlfriend won't put out, is that it?" she muses, mind already on the wrong track.

"More like _he's_ the one who won't put out..." _his true feelings_ , Gintoki mutters.

"I've got it!" Otae smacks her fist into the palm of her hand with fearful force. "Just take him to a soapland! You know, the one my friend owns!". _The one my friend owns_ , he knew from the company new year's party a few years back, being code for _the one I used to own._

It sounded like a bad idea, but Gintoki was all for bad ideas, especially if they occurred after a bout of heavy drinking on a Friday night, which he didn't doubt Hijikata needed anyway.

So for once she might be right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Accidentally started writing a Harada half-way through and had to save it. Like, Gintoki? Alone in a room with Hijikata? Stapling papers? h-ha ha ha *sweats*


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEoxu0_8uZU

"You free Friday night?" asks Gintoki monotonously, eyeing the unbuttoned collar of the white shirt peeking out from his sweater-vest, standing in front of Hijikata's desk again. "There's that Classical Japanese club I talked to you about last time I could introduce you to, it could prob'ly help you with your problem about 心うし 'n やをら 'n all that."  
  
"That's middle school shit, Gin -- Sensei." replies Hijikata, pen finishing a sentence in his notebook with a flourishing wave of the hand.

"Exactly what you need, Hijikata. Go die and get reincarnated as a middle-schooler." Sougo, listening as always, face mask pulled away from his eyes now that class is over. He hadn't quite bothered to slide out from his seat, but eventually the students for next period would trickle in.

"Oh? What was that? Did you just call me 'Gin'?" deadpans Gintoki some more, ignoring Sougo, suddenly putting his hands over his ears when Sarutobi starts screeching _Friday? I'm free I wanna come what Gin what Gintokiiiii!!!_

"It's boys-only." he replies, hands still over his ears, to which she starts rambling something about a quick Thai vacation. "Anyway, you're free, right? Y'don't seem to have a life so..."

"I do too have a life!" says Hijikata. "I..."

"On Fridays he usually watches movies as an excuse to bawl his eyes out," supplies Sougo, removing the bright-red, round lolipop from his mouth with a wet smack that leaves a dribble of spit running down his lip. Hijikata twitches. "Go help him unleash his repressed feelings, Sensei."

"Aye-aye," says Gintoki with a yawn.  
  
\--------  
  
They exchange LINE accounts, arrange to meet at a local bar - Gintoki promising to pay, as a teacher should - and by the time Hijikata arrives, ten minutes early, Gintoki's already drinking at one of the seats in the ten-man shop, hunched over the barstool with a tiny cup of clear shochu between his forefinger and thumb.

As soon as Hijikata enters through the transparent glass door, Gintoki waves him over and offers a sip from his own drink. "You ever try shochu, eh?" voice more animated than it ever is in class, "Japan-made's the best made!"

Hijikata downs the whole thing in one go. "Of course I've tried shochu, I'm not a foreigner y'know."

"You'd be surprised," says Gintoki and leans closer to him despite the quiet of the room, a lazy slump of the shoulders. "Kids these days don't care about Japan anymore, they'd rather be Korean pop stars or American youtubers 'n all."

"...Kids these days? How old're you?"

"Twenny-five."

Hijikata hm-hmm'd and ordered a shochu for himself, the same type as Gintoki. _By the way, this silver-haired bastard's paying._ They drank one, two, three rounds and then wandered off to the next empty ten-man bar on the same street, then the next. Finally Gintoki deemed themselves drunk enough to make the next move - the one he'd set this whole thing up for.

"Hey, you wanna go somewhere... else?" He says, under the glaring lights of Kabuki-cho's nightlife district, amidst a thin sea of people on the street. Oh, somehow that didn't sound right.

"Eh? Sure, sure." replies a sloshed Hijikata, one arm around Gintoki's shoulders, left side warmly pressing into Gintoki's right.

"Okay, so it's been awhile since I last got some, so I was thinking..." he trails off. What was he thinking? Somehow that didn't sound right... "I was thinking, y'wanna go to a soapland together?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," says Hijikata loudly into his ear, puff of breath reaching to his skin. Looking around distantly, as if he can't quite place where they're at, gaze passing over the advertising calls of hosts and maids and scuba-diving fundraisers with microphones. "Can we get a hotel after? I'm kinda drunk."

Gintoki glances at him and notices the colour of his eyes, hue of his skin. Well, he did just get paid.

"Yeah, why not." he says, and attempts to remember the nearest soapland he's ever been told about and never gone to, Hijikata pressed against him as they walk in a haphazard line towards the end of the street.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Porn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whelp, I did it, Glad Yule, time to be disowned again. Soundtrack was pretty much every electroswing song on YouTube.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7lxd7RL1To

They step into the soapland-cum-hotel, checking in via a boxy machine at the front entrance, small coloured rectangles showing them still images of the available rooms: two males, private room, drink bar, two-hour soap. The price was cheap, suspiciously cheap, but they were too far gone to care. Gintoki hadn't done this before, but figured it'd take Hijikata quite a while to even undress in front of him, so gave them an overabundance of time with the girls.

They were guided by the neon LED lights to their room, taking the one-way elevator in lieu of the emergency stairs. Upon entering they found a nice, warm bath with cloudy water - smelling slightly of sulpher, and of a chemical yudzu soap - and another machine, with photos of female workers lit and unlit, and a counter reading "2" underneath the group of faces. _Please don't wash before entering, we drain the water after every use_ claimed the sign.

"I guess we choose who we want?" muses Gintoki, toeing out of his sockless loafers at the entryway step, shucking off his jacket, shirt and trousers two steps in front of Hijikata. He tosses the clothes into a pile on the floor by his shoes, and Hijikata mindlessly bends down to fold them for him. _Haha, y'drunk-ass, what're you, my wife?_  laughs Gintoki, and as Hijikata looks up at him confused, he removes his printed boxers and adds them to the pile, fabric drifting down to cover Hijikata's hands. The man retracts them after a few moments, pulling a face.

"Should I choose?" asks Gintoki, leaning onto the machine, completely naked. "Y'don't care, right?"

"...Right you are." affirms Hijikata, removing his own clothes, slowly and carefully, fumbling slightly.

Gintoki looks between the photos for a while, while Hijikata slides into the pleasantly-warm bath-water, the shallow tub inlaid in the floor, fake wood panelling. He eventually chooses two random girls, squinting at the blurry photos that all look the same on closer inspection, and gets into the bath, side-by-side with Hijikata, space enough for a person in-between.

"You're not supposed to fuck 'em," he explains to Hijikata what everyone already knows. "and they're just gonna wash us. With erotic sponges. Prob'ly."

"You don't know shit," laughs Hijikata, and sinks down to his neck into the water. "Ahh, can we smoke in here?"

"You smoke?" Gintoki isn't really surprised, but the bars they'd been to had all been non-smoking, and neither had he attempted to light up on the walk to the diner from before.

"Like a New Year's bonfire."

"Hmm, hmm... You smoke in bed, too?"

Hijikata doesn't answer, but stands up suddenly, water dripping in rivulets down to pitter-patter onto the bath's surface, and steps up onto the waterproof flooring, twirling around a little, bending down to dig for a cigarette and lighter in his small bag. He lights up, breaths out, then abandons the lighter on top of Gintoki's discarded underwear, stepping back into the water with the thing of his desire still in his mouth.

At that moment two raps at the door announce the girls' arrival, Gintoki calling out a welcome, and the door opens. Hijikata nervously, sloppily, hides his cigarette behind his wet back, sitting up straight.

"It's all right, you can smoke in here." assures one of the swimsuited girls, with a false, merry laugh. They seem almost like twins. Hijikata relaxes somewhat and returns the cigarette to his mouth, eyeing them. In their arms are various bottles of soaps and various sizes of sponges with differing textures.

Pointing at Hijikata's nose, "This is his first time with a girl," says Gintoki, in a toneless voice, which Hijikata is slowly coming to associate with lying. He takes the cigarette out of Hijikata's mouth and puffs it once, making a disgusted face, then hands it back.

"Oh, that won't be a problem, sirs. You two can do whatever makes you feel at ease, we are only here as an... appetizer. Please be kind enough to inform us if we do anything to make you feel uncomfortable."

The two pad to the bath, one moving to behind Gintoki and the other to behind Hijikata, kneeling down with their legs spread wide until they just briefly touch both sides of the men, legs smooth and bare. They lean forward, the slight bump of their busts coming to rest against the men's backs, and dip their hands and arms into the water, sponges dripping.

"Please tell us if you're uncomfortable," says the one at Hijikata; he blows out a breath of smoke in reply, resting against her as if she were a chair, arms splayed out to either side of him.

The girls shake their bottles and then begin soaping them up, first with their hands, then with their sponges, first at their backs, then sliding up to their shoulders, down to their chests, the white bubbles beginning to cover them everywhere. Finally, finally moving to the inside of their thighs, Gintoki opens his wide and Hijikata follows his lead, but to no real avail. Perhaps they've drunk too much.

"It's your first time here, is that correct?" asks the one behind Gintoki, close behind his ear, and they both stand up, stepping into the water, skin shiny and smooth. Hijikata's cigarette has almost burnt out by now, the last dregs just barely avoiding singeing his lips. His girl fetches an ashtray from the end-table for him before they continue.

"That's right." says Gintoki, reaching down to touch himself in the water.

"You ordered two hours, so we have a special service." she continues, slipping the black polyester straps of her bathing suit off her shoulders, revealing the curve of her shoulderblades, the pale softness of her breasts. "Please allow us to get behind you, and close your eyes."

They do as they're told, and the girl's legs wrap around their own, arms coming to feel their warm lengths; everywhere the sulpher water and slippery soap, which had begun turning clear and almost slimey in the water.

"Breathe out," they say in unison, and they do so, and past the darkness of their closed eyelids they feel something slide at their waists, and it feels almost as if there's a third hand there, beneath the water, searching. Gintoki brushes against it with his fingers as he shifts positions.

"Yes, it's good to touch him," says a voice off to the side at the same time as Hijikata lets out a gasp, just a quiet push of air amidst the splashes in the water that his ears just happen to catch, and Gintoki doesn't dare open his eyes for fear of scaring both of them to flaccidity - was it, could it be? That third hand, arm?

The back of someone's wrist slides against him, caressing his summit, and another arm rubs against his lower back, and lower, and lower still, until a finger slick with soap rubs against the secret button there, and he gasps as Hijikata did moments before. He feels himself lifted up slightly, the legs wrapped around him bringing him higher, guiding his hips to unfold wider and wider, fingers rubbing everywhere, over and under and around and in, and he's quickly come to full hardness, and he wants to see if he has won.

Gintoki opens his eyes to see that the girls have vanished, swimsuits floating on the ripples of the bathwater, and Hijikata has been lifted to where his head is safely in the air, legs spread wide, held up by translucent, living ropes and suds. Gintoki scrabbles at the thickened string that's perched itself inside of him, movements slow and restrained, but as soon as his fingers touch the pulsing object Hijikata lets out another gasp and twitches right in front of him, breath coming faster and faster.

"Shit, we've been roofied," Gintoki sighs out, coming to the most logical conclusion his shochu-muddled brain can still piece together. He keeps pulling and tugging despite the paradisal sensations, and with every slide of his hand Hijikata's breath hitches and his quiet _ah, ah's_  grow louder and louder, until he's hiding his face in his hands and simultaniously pleading out for more, grinding his hips into the air. The feeling inside Gintoki grows thicker and thicker, stretching him deliciously, pressing just hard enough, his own breath laboured, and still he pulls at it, shuts and opens his legs and squirms, to the tune of Hijikata crying out beside him.

"D'y'feel that? Really?" asks Gintoki, face completely flushed, sweat mixed with water droplets everywhere, hotter and hotter, ready to burst. His hands move with a firm pressure along the slick mass again, as if a pianist admiring the keys, and the rope around his handle twists and tightens and loosens oh-so-subtly, creating a texture and suction, and despite himself his legs twitch harder and harder.

"Oh... Oh, I didn't know...!" is all Hijikata can manage to say, still covering his face, shaking, and with each shake Gintoki feels the vibrations reach him down inside, and finally Hijikata comes to his pinnacle. The ropes, both inside and out, quiver too hard and as one slides across Gintoki's lower head he's finished, gasping and shaking into the water alongside his student, freed. They relax into the warm water, soap and slime having disintegrated. Hijikata still with his eyes closed moves his hands to cup himself, lightly, thumbing the sensitivity. After a moment Gintoki shakes him by the shoulders, tells him to stand and move to the bed.

"We'll talk about this later, maybe over another drink" he says, or tries to say, voice horse, throat dry and thoughts swirling, and Hijikata nuzzles into him just briefly before separating and slipping into the bed, leaving wet footprints on the floor and damp circles in the sheets.


End file.
